Chasing tales
by kimmiesjoy
Summary: Beckett's post honeymoon root through their combined movie collection leaves Castle having to make a confession. written for CastleFanficMonday.


Based on a twitter conversation between lv2bnsb and Smeeleetah that I kinda took as a prompt.

* * *

It's late when they finally make it back, smelling like hay and happiness, thoroughly honeymooned out. The city air buzzes with a restless kind of energy, an energy that Castle and Beckett, as wrung out as they are, exude themselves. When they stumble through the door of the loft, exhausted, laughing, weaving around each other with ease, a ripple of thunder takes over the sky, and the rain begins.

"We just made it," Kate states delightedly, kicking off her boots and dragging her bag toward the bedroom. "Five more minutes and we'd be soaked to the skin."

"Somehow I don't think I'd have a problem with that, Mrs. Castle."

She groans at the use of her name, her new name, and turns to her recently acquired husband with a smile, "No, I'm sure you wouldn't, but after this week I am exhausted." Her eyes flirt dangerously with his, fingers toying with his button as she sidles closer, slipping into a southern accent, "Y'all just about wore. Me. Out."

"Y'all?" he laughs, dropping the bags in either hand and grabbing for her waist instead, "Was only me there, Beckett."

"Really? You're being pedantic about grammar now?" Her hands knot a little too tightly at the back of his head and her lips press together in annoyance. It's fleeting and transparent. Easily chased away.

"No, shhh, back to flirting and wearing you out." Castle nuzzles into her neck and hums against her pulse, tugging until resistance falls and she's laughing, sighing into his chest. "Why didn't you want to get caught in the rain?" He cajoles, stroking one hand down the warm slope of her spine.

"Because I'm tired," she smiles, leaning back to rub her thumb along his jaw, "In the good way. Worn out from fun and excitement and all the things you should be after your honeymoon."

They both grin at the word.

"So, you finally conceed?"

She wets her lips and bites down, "Mmm more like you persuaded me to your way of thinking."

Her words carry a leer, sound suggestive. They should.

"I am good at that." He flares his nostrils, a predatory gaze heating her skin as memories of their four hard fought for days away from the city spill across their faces.

"No arguments from me," she replies easily, voice low, smoothing her hands over his shoulders, palms flat as they follow the contours of his arms. Kate squeezes his elbows, strokes the groove of muscle where it meets bone and roams up again, sighing.

"And now?"

"And now, we're home," Kate grins, relishing the word, "And I want to curl up in my bed, with my husband and the most comfortable clothes I own. I want to watch movies and eat popcorn and waste the final hours of our stolen vacation doing nothing at all."

"Thats not a waste," Castle disagrees, stroking her cheek until she smiles and presses herself against his palm, "But I'll make the popcorn and pour the wine if you pick something out?"

"Sounds like a plan Mr. Beckett." She nods in affirmation, pushing him away and swatting at his rump to shoo him from the bedroom.

* * *

He's a little longer than he plans to be. Putting together a snack plate of cheeses and fruit, tipping popcorn into one large bowl they can share, indulging his pursuit of the perfect accompanying wine. By the time he makes it back to Kate she's changed into a soft pink t-shirt that slips from one shoulder, tied her hair back and engaged relaxation mode. Her feet are bare though a pair of his socks have been tossed onto the couch, and her toes wiggle to whatever it is he catches her humming.

She's content in her mess, having clearly rooted through their entire combined collection of movies, a vast array of DVD and Blu Ray cases spilling out around her. Perhaps looking for something specific. She could pull it off the internet just as easily, but when it's her turn to choose, when she's relaxed and a little sentimental, she often slips into familiarity, selecting something that holds meaning to them both through possession as well as shared experience.

She's a collector of things as much as moments and now she's quiet, his soulful wife, head tipping down, gaze fixed pointedly on whatever she cradles in her lap. Castle finds himself approaching on tip toes, loathe to disturb her. In moments like this, catching her in silent observation, he's taken back to the start of their relationship and often finds it hard to reconcile that side of them with where they are now. They've come so far and he's reminded everyday, by the simplest of things, how wonderful it is.

She senses his presence before he speaks, his gaze following the drop of her shoulders, observing the weariness of travel fall away, traded instead for anticipation of his joining her. It's a welcome spoken in silence that lifts his own spirits long before he knows they need lifting.

Castle strokes a hand over the back of her head as he passes by, "We have two," she mumbles, smile evident in her voice. "Did you buy this after we saw it together?" She wonders aloud, turning the case end over end, not giving him a chance to respond, "That's so sweet, babe."

"Er-" He sees it now, the movie, the one that is eliciting sweetnesses and pet names from his wife. The one that is likely to get him in trouble, maybe ruin the mood that has lingered with them since they said "I do".

"Ooh wine," she kneels and reaches for her glass, pouting briefly when he deposits it instead on the table between them, eyes still locked on the movie she holds in her hand.

She finds her eyes falling too, lifting back to his with a pinkness to her cheeks he would put down to the alcohol or summer rain, only she's, thus far, devoid of both. He offers her a palm instead, a little flourish, an over the top gentlemanly dip bringing her to her feet in front of him.

"You know -" Kate grins, reminiscent of firelight and his half decent harmonica playing, "I kinda thought of that as a date."

"What?"

"The Angelica and Forbidden Planet," she elaborates unnecessarily, dancing the case in front of him, before she flops down on the couch.

"You did?"

Castle throws himself down at her side, ignoring the way she swats at his chest when she bounces.

Her eyes lift, nose scrunching, "Is that awful? We were with other people - " she shudders, "- the wrong people, but still. Is it weird? It feels weird."

"No," he dismisses quickly, wanting to get back to the more interesting topic, "You thought it was a date?"

Laughing and rolling her eyes, soft and loving and somehow wifely all at once, "Not A. Date. Like a date. Stop looking so shocked it's not like it was our first."

"Wait, what?" He splutters, "We were dating and I didn't even know it? I feel so ripped off." He grunts, passing over her wine glass and smiling, pretending obliviousness when he's anything but. Though she knows he's intrigued by her admission, by the story he can sense with his writer's Bloodhound nose, she knows equally he's as enamoured with their history as she is. Things have never been easy, but it doesn't mean they would trade a second of it.

Kate stretches out, luxuriating in the softness beneath her limbs, the stark contrast to rawhide and hay, wood and leather. It's good to be home, she yawns, cocks her head as she speaks, "According to half the precinct we've been secretly married for years, but seriously Castle, when did you buy this?"

It's never not fun to mess with him.

"When did I bu- secretely mar- you can't just throw out statements like that without explanation."

"Why not," she grins, trailing his thigh a little too high for comfort, "you do it all the time."

He grabs her hand, "That's me, I get away with it."

"Well, we're married now," She smirks, threading their fingers together. "Married married. What's yours is mine, wild theories included."

"My theories are elaborate, yes, but well thought out -"

She snorts.

"Logical."

"Ha!"

"And often fit the evidence better than anything else we have at the time."

"Bigfoot?"

"It was Bigfoot," he cries, "just not the Bigfoot." His eyes narrow, taking in the way she presses her smile to the rim as she sips from her wine glass, "And don't think you've worked your little interrogatory magic on me."

She squawks in protest, "Interrogatory magic?"

"It's a thing." He mumbles into his glass before she can see him laugh.

"Is not."

"Okay, now who's being pedantic?"

She scoffs and nudges him with her foot. "Still you."

"Stop trying to distract me by arguing and being cute," Castle growls and she laughs loudly, bringing her feet all the way up on to the couch, curling them under his knee. She tips her head onto his shoulder and sighs, waiting for the inevitable question.

"Kate, why don't I know about this date date, that wasn't a date?"

Instead of answering she narrows her eyes, not even bothering with that interrogatory magic when she asks, "Castle, why do we really have two copies of Forbidden Planet?

* * *

She tries to remain stoic, wiping her face clean of emotion, but he's swallowing thickly and side-eyeing her, and not working with her at all. It's almost like he knows she knows, or at least suspects her suspicion, every comical facial expression deliberate, morphing his features until she's biting the inside of her cheek and trying not to giggle.

"The answer to that question- " he gulps, "- depends entirely on how you feel about me sleeping on the couch?" He grimaces, hunches his shoulders, waits.

Kate releases his hand and pretends to think it over, weighs the options with her palms in the air. "Well, honeymoon phase, so...right now I'd say I'm pretty against it."

"Me too," he agrees readily, taking her hand in his. "And I love you very much -

"Love you too."

" -but I want you to know -"

" I do know."

"- I lied."

"I know."

"I lied. I lied." He blurts before repeating it, exhaling as if blowing up a huge balloon, before visibly deflating in front of her, "Oh it feels so good to say that. I lied. I lieeeed."

She cocks an eyebrow and crosses her arms, determined not to find his relief amusing or sweet. It's not sexy either, nope, not one bit, she does not want in any way, shape or form to climb into his lap right now. Nope.

She cocks her eyebrow and waits and when he catches sight of her his eyes go wide and his laughter dies out when he chokes on it, trying to splutter through and apologise, breathe, laugh and cough all at once.

"I'm sorry."

"Mmmhmm."

"I am." He yells it, grabs for her hand, bringing it to sit between both of his, completely missing her lack of anger, the telltale amusement that causes her lips to twist to one side and her eyes to sparkle.

She's dopey and in love with him and he's too busy worrying he's in trouble to see it, and that makes her love him even more. It's a deliciously vicious circle she finds herself lost in, chasing each other's tails.

"I'm sorry, Kate, it just happened and I didn't mean for it to last this long. I mean, it's been years." He laughs nervously, shakes it off, "But you were so excited to show it to me and I just - I really wanted to spend some time with you and -" he sighs, "I'm sorry, I know you're probably mad and I should have told you I'd seen Forbidden Planet a hundred times before -"

" I knew."

"You what?"

"I knew it," Kate grins, tongue between her teeth and laugh a teasing thing that seeks to drive him crazy. She rolls her eyes, "Castle that DVD has a sticker on it that says property of Alexis Castle aged 14. You might be better at the whole writing thing, but I'm pretty good at Math." She smiles, "Besides Castle, you laughed twice before anything funny happened and looked at me for reactions to things you knew were coming."

"I did?"

"Yeah, you were pretty obvious."

"You knew," he swivels between the case and the wife, holding one and tempted to reach for the other.

"Yeah, not stealthy babe."

He pouts, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"It's sweet, Castle," she smiles, tugging until he abandons the empty box and curls into her instead. "I said it was then, and it still is."

"You thought it was a date?" He asks quietly, nose nudging into her hair as he plays it smooth, yawns and wraps an arm around her shoulders. They might be in their own home, on their couch and married now, but no reason they can't still have a little fun.

"Like a date." She pokes him, but smiles and flutters her eyelashes in an exaggerated attempt at coyness.

He scoffs, shifts the popcorn bowl into his lap and ahems under his breath, wiggling a little when she reaches for a handful.

"I loved hearing you talk about the movie," he says suddenly, a wistful smile replacing his mischief. "You do this thing with your hands when you're excited - " he copies it, snapping his fingers like two little puppets, "- it's like you're retelling the story, you - what? It's cute?"

She keeps her head buried in his shoulder, the groan dying off.

"I really wanted to kiss you that night," he says quietly, "I was such an ass."

"Eh, maybe half an ass, you only thought about it."

"What would you have done if I had kissed you?" He can't help but wonder.

"Oh, I'd have kissed you back," she laughs, a little sadly, " and we would have regretted it and gone home feeling like crap." She touches his face, "It would have spoiled the night."

He smiles, cupping her hand to his cheek, "You're right."

"I'm your wife," she bobs her head, singsongs, "It's my job to be right."

He laughs and kisses her, softly, barely grazing her lips yet inhaling deeply, "You're good at it." Their foreheads touch for a split second before she slides to his ear and thumbs the lobe almost in warning.

He laughs and she grins into the sound, bathing in the warmth of his smile just as she vowed she would.

"Let's watch the movie, Castle." She wriggles into his side, "We can have a do-over of our not a date like a date date movie night."

"Say that three times fast." He dares, opening his mouth when she offers a piece of popcorn. "Can I walk you home again?" He whispers, chewing, remembering how he saw her to her door and stood outside it long after it had closed.

"You can walk me to our bed and then join me in it." She offers instead, sounding sleepy and he's half convinced she'll be heavy in his arms before the credits roll.

"Yes, dear."

"And after that you can tell me why we own two copies of Nebula Nine without blaming -"

"Alexis made me."

"- Mmhmm."

The movie starts and she smiles, holding out long enough to watch him mouth the words, just like he did the first time they saw it together.


End file.
